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| Nearly 30 book shops! |
Last week we decided to have a spontaneous trip to Hay-on-Wye, one of our favourite places and one that we haven't seen enough of recently. So on Friday we finished early and set off on the lovely journey down through the Welsh borders - Chester, Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Leominster and finally arriving in Hay at about 3pm.
Hay is best known for being 'the town of books' and it certainly has more than its fair share of book shops: over 30 in a town with a population of under 1,500. These are complemented by other, interesting shops selling 'lovely stuff'' which all helps to make it a good place to spend a couple of days.
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| Booth's Book Shop |
The largest book shop in Hay, and one of the largest in the country, is Richard Booth's Book Shop. Having been under new ownership for a couple of years, it has been refurbished and is much improved. The dusty old stock has been replaced with clean, bright books that you want to pick up and read. The wood is polished, the windows are clean and there are comfortable chairs so you can sit down and browse the books. There is also a fantastic café which serves local food with great style.
Having filled our boots with books and other good things we set off home, calling it at Dunkerton's Cider Mill, near Leominster, to pick up a few bottles of fine organic Herefordshire cider and perry. Something else to remind us of our short break as the nights start to draw in and late summer becomes early autumn.
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| Ancient barn at Dunkerton's farm |
